can the republicans offer publicly an alternative, either to the fiscal cliff or to what the president is offering. the president's plan was put on the table last week. it was not that well with president on. speaker boehner and others. stuart: i wonder, as an insider, among democrats, and that is what you are, simon, i want you to tell me, what plans does the president or any other democrats, have to reform social entitlement? >> first of all, if you remember well, stuart, mitt romney and the republicans beat up on president obama for the last three years for cutting medicare at $716 billion. he has already showed he is willing to take a big bite out of a major entitlement program. stuart: hold on a second. i do remember it. that is not reform. that is not reforming the structure of entitlement programs. that is the issue. >> i think the focus has been on medicare. the attention now needs to be on medicare inside the aca. there were large structural reforms in the way healthcare was playing out. in fact, last year, we had a slower rate of growth and health care spending that we have h